


Cleaning Up

by allegedly_writing



Series: The In-Between [1]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Character Study, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, making a makeshift altar to honor your dead friends, post ep 120
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:40:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24889270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allegedly_writing/pseuds/allegedly_writing
Summary: Someone has to do it. That’s what Melaine keeps telling herself.There's plenty of desks that need to be cleaned out in the archives. Melaine takes it upon herself to do so.
Relationships: Basira Hussain/Alice "Daisy" Tonner, Melaine King & Tim Stoker, Melanie King & Basira Hussain
Series: The In-Between [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1822225
Comments: 16
Kudos: 39





	Cleaning Up

**Author's Note:**

> this fandom needs more Melaine and Basira friendship so have this

Someone has to do it. 

That’s what Melaine keeps telling herself. Someone has to, someone has to. She grinds her teeth and stuffs Jon’s things into a garbage bag. She doesn’t look at any of it. Files and papers and whatever else. It doesn’t matter. Jon’s not coming back, he’s not, they don’t need to have anything waiting for him. A missed scrap of paper catches her eye and she grabs and pockets it, she can deal with it later. 

There’s only the three of them left. Her, Basira, Martin. Well, she barely sees Martin anymore so maybe not him. But her and Basira are still here and someone has to do it. It’s still a bit better than making herself sit and reads statements when all she can think about is burning down this place. 

After Jon’s desk is empty and the trash bag set to the side, she goes on a scavenger hunt for Daisy’s leftover things. She didn’t have a desk of her own so all of her left behind possessions are spread all over the archives. Something here, something there. She knows she can’t possibly ask Basira to help her with this. 

(Basira had come across a left behind shirt of Daisy’s four days after the wax museum and had shut herself in the library for hours. Melaine can’t blame her. She only has a sense of what they were to each other but it’s enough.) 

Tim’s desk is where she pauses, really pauses for the first time. She doesn’t want her thoughts to catch up to her but she can’t keep fighting forever. 

It’s different with him. Jon’s not dead, even if he might as well be, and she can focus on just being angry with him. Daisy is just gone, and it isn’t like Melaine knew her extraordinarily well to begin with. She was just there and then gone and back and then really gone. 

Tim is completely, unambiguously dead. 

She clenches her jaw and fights against the sudden, hot burning in her eyes. Weren’t her and Tim talking about getting a drink later this week? Wasn’t that them? It feels so long ago. 

But now he’s dead and she has to clean up his stupid fucking mess. 

She starts yanking out drawers and sweeping things into the bag and the throbbing in her head keeps increasing in tempo. It reaches fever pitch when she comes across a framed photo. Tim and a man who looks very similar to him. His brother, definitely. Tim had mentioned him before. The urge to smash the frame against the wall is almost overwhelming. 

Jon’s unresponsive and Daisy’s gone and Tim’s dead and somehow this place still has to be run and someone has to run it. The unfairness of it all makes her see red past the blur of her eyes. 

“Melaine?” She pauses and looks up, hand still wrapped around the picture. Basira’s lingering in the doorway. Her expression, as usual, is almost unreadable. She still has the bandage wrapped around her torso from where the explosion burned her shoulder and she still walks with the slightest bit of a limp. It makes Melaine sting with guilt and burn with anger at the same time. Who’s she even angry at now? 

“Do you need help?” Basira’s voice doesn’t hold any pity. Melaine still bristles slightly at it. 

“No, no, it’s fine.” She still doesn’t move, holding the picture in a vice grip. Basira doesn’t respond, except to come over and take the frame from her grip. 

“Give it to me.” Basira says simply. Melaine wants to resist, wants to hold on, but she doesn’t. She trusts Basira, she has to. They’re the only ones left. 

“We can keep it somewhere, if you want.” Basira offers. Melaine thinks about it for a moment. 

“Yeah, I think that’s good.” Saying it feels like pulling teeth but she does actually want to keep something to remember them by. Even if it hurts, maybe especially if it hurts. Basira just nods. 

“I have somewhere for it. Come with me.” Melaine just nods stiffly and follows, Basira leading her into the tiny break room and kitchen. Her rage still simmers inside her but she’s trying, really trying to get it down. On the counter is a shirt, which Melaine immediately recognizes as Daisy’s. Her throat tightens as Basira sets Tim’s picture next to it.

“You’re crying.” The feeling of hot tears on her face snaps her back to reality and she wipes them on her jacket sleeve. 

“Sorry.” 

“S’okay.” They stand in silence for a minute. Basira is closer to her than she’s been in a long time and Melaine can almost see the tension in her, the amount of concealed pain she’s holding onto. 

“I miss them too.” Basira says softly. Her voice catches slightly, it’s the closest Melaine has seen her come to breaking and the thought makes her feel almost dizzy with grief. 

Her hand slides into her jacket pocket and comes across the scrap from earlier. She pulls it out and looks it over. Jon’s scratchy handwriting is borderline impossible to read but she’s certain it’s his. She adds it to the shirt and the picture, because even in her anger she feels like Jon needs to be remembered. And, after all, someone has to do it.

**Author's Note:**

> This might be part of a series about the archives post 120 and before Jon wakes up but we'll see. Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
